Washington City Paper; Vol 15, #49; Dec 8-14 1995

Long before H.R. Giger served him with court documents via crowdsurfer, 
before Johnny Cash bolstered a comeback album with his "Thirteen," and 
before the band bearing his surname topped the American Recordings 
roster, Glenn danzig fronted New Jersey's Misfits. Nothing if not 
careerist (when the band's members aspired to open a U..K. tour for the 
Damned, they simply showed up uninvited), the 'Fits kept pace with the 
late-'70s/early-'80s underground by shifting from melodic shock-punk to 
blazing-thud horror-core. A document of this musical devolution, 
Collection II also memorializes Danzig's unflagging devotion to his 
lyrical muse. Track after track lampoons rock extremity, whether in the 
guise of the unrepentant tough guy ("Spit up blood when you cough/Cool, 
cook, cool") or the wistful Satanist ("Dead cats hanging from 
poles/Little dead are out in droves/I remember Halloween"). The CD 
booklet takes pains to inform the studious listener that the delerious 
incantation of "Halloween II" is delivered in a Latin it prefers to call 
"non-standard" rather than "illiterate." I imagine, however, that 
recollections of "Last Caress" are responsible for Danzig's greatest 
professional satisfaction. Marrying an impreccable retro-'50s, 
Ramones-style rip-off of a tune to words so outrageous that the very idea 
of evil is rendered ridiculous ("Well I got something to say/I raped your 
mother today/And it doesn't matter mucht to me/As long as she spread"), 
it seems destined to draw the attention of prying, worried parents. The 
aging Danzig probably figured that the folks of neopunk-struck teens 
could benefit from his perspective. And why not? Metallica boosted the 
Misfits legend by convering the band's songs on 1987's Garage Days 
Re-Revisited, and Danzig's post-'Fits outfit, Samhain, made sure to keep 
the early songs before the public by re-recording them. It's only 
slightly less comely to re-resurrect this posthumous powerhouse on the 
backs of the Offspring.
	-- Glenn Dixon